Enigmatic Asus Qube makes first appearance

Trent Nouveau, 7th January 2013

Rumors about the enigmatic Asus Qube have been swirling around for weeks now, with the device finally making its first appearance at CES 2013 in Las Vegas.

Essentially, the Qube is a set-top box powered by Google's rapidly evolving television platform. Although Asus has yet to detail hardware specs, we do know that it runs a specially designed "Qube" interface designed by the industry heavyweight itself.

Meaning, the Asus coded Qube UI sits on top of Google's OS, yet still supports the latest and greatest features of the operating system, including advanced voice search, Chrome and a freshly coded YouTube app.

According to Asus, the Qube UI displays everything on screen via a rotating on-screen cube shape and can be navigated via a motion-sensitive remote control, tablet or smartphone.

"[We have] developed the unique Qube interface, which displays functions via a rotating on-screen cube shape. The advanced remote control supports motion sensing for gaming and other applications," an Asus rep explained.

"[Users] can also control Qube with Google TV from their Android smartphones and tablets using the Mobile Remote app, available through Google Play."

Unfortunately, pricing and availability have yet to be announced, so one can only hope the Qube will make it to market, unlike its moribund Google-branded predecessor known as the Nexus Q.

If it does, a potential $200-$250 price point doesn't seem all that unreasonable, especially if Asus is also offering 50GB of cloud storage via its WebStorage service with every Qube.